11A – Idea Napkin No. 1

1)    You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

My name is Meredith and I am a senior marketing student at UF. I plan on moving to New York City after graduation to start a career in digital marketing. I have a talent for leading groups and public speaking, and I like to work with other people to solve problems. I have a passion for traveling and exploring new countries, and would love to find a career that allows me to do so.  It would be easy for me to be passionate about starting this business concept because it is something that directly impacts me, and I feel that having a connection to your work allows you to invest yourself more fully.

2)    What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 

After reading Ms. Messner announcement and struggling to finish this assignment with the current opportunity I was focusing on, I decided to reevaluate my idea. I think I was focusing too much on my immediate surroundings and not thinking about what affects other people. My new product/service I will be exploring is a grocery delivery service. When I lived in New York City this summer, I saw tons of advertisements for this type of service, but I have not seen that service offered anywhere else. I know for myself as a student, grocery shopping can be a pain and hard to do if you don’t have a reliable mode of transportation. My service would be in the form of an app, similar to Uber, where you would request specific grocery items and pay a fee to have them delivered to you.

3)    Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

My “clients” are college aged individuals, both male and female, who attend UF or live in the Gainesville area. Geographically, all of my customers live very close to one another, so that is something they all have in common. They also either don’t have a reliable mode of transportation or do not have the time in their day to go grocery shopping.

4)    Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 

Convenience plays a large role in why customers would find this valuable to them. Food delivery services and driving services have become popular because they have created a way to make their customers lives more convenient.

5)    What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 

This service does not exist in the Gainesville market, so that is something that sets my idea apart from others. Just like Uber and other apps that have taken off, it will allow individuals to make money on the side or during their free time, as well as provide a service for a market.

I believe that after reconsidering my opportunity and answering these questions, they seem to fit together nicely. The only question that was difficult to answer was number five. I don’t think this is a unique or new idea, because it is playing off a service I saw in New York City. However, since this is a completely different market, it would be new to these customers. I think to make this idea work, I would have to do a lot more research to ensure that a city like Gainesville could sustain this opportunity.